Azerbaijan Starts
Visa Liberalization
After CESD’s Recommendations on
Visa Facilitation the Government
of Azerbaijan is planning to
apply new mechanisms in visa
sphere
The Center
for Economic and Social
Development (CESD), Azerbaijan
has recently presented “Visa
Facilitation” Paper (the whole
paper is available athttp://novisa.az/en/publications )
which was part
of “Paving the Road towards
Visa-free Travel between the
Eastern Partnership countries
and the EU”, a
project of PASOS (Policy
Association for an Open
Society), supported by
the Local Government and Public
Service Reform Initiative (LGI)
of Open
Society Foundations.
After holding discussions with
line ministries, the Government
of Azerbaijan decided to
facilitate visa issues in
Azerbaijan. According to the
President Office, new rules on
Visa Liberalization was
presented to Azerbaijani
Parliament which facilitating
rules of issuing visas to
tourists and raising
transparency. In line with the
bill, the issuance of visas to
tourists via tourism companies
will be facilitated. Thus, to
get a visa tourism companies can
apply in the internet to the
embassies and consulates of
Azerbaijan in the countries of
residence of tourists.
The visas will be complied in
e-form and sent to the e-address
of the requested tourism
companies. The visa, issued in
e-order, will not be attached to
passport and will be presented
by tourists together with the
passport on the control check
point.
All embassies and consulates of
Azerbaijan in foreign countries
are involved in the automated
information search system
“Entrance-exit and registration)
and provision of necessary
information for visa issuance
has been provided. Another
opportunity, envisioned for
tourism companies, became the
submission of documents in the
embassies and consulates of
Azerbaijan by post. In these
cases visa is registered and
sent with passport and other
documents to the tourism
companies.
The bill defined documents,
ratifying the visit for tourism
purposes. This is the tourism
voucher or the tourism trip, the
passenger ticket and the
document, certifying booking a
number at a hotel, camping,
tourism basis or other similar
objects. The information about
the list of documents, form of
application and state duties
required for issuance of visa
will be posted on the
information internet resources
of the Foreign
Ministry, embassies and
consulates of Azerbaijan in
foreign countries. The appeals
will be considered within 15
days. Under new rules, the
tourism visas will be valid
within 30 days. The new bill is
also aimed at facilitating rules
of registering visas. The
issuance of visas to tourists at
the international airports of
Azerbaijan is not envisioned.
